Sioux Falls summer swimming passes go digital

Mar. 17, 2013

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How to get a new electronic pass:

Through May 17, season swim passes will be available for purchase from noon - 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, at Kenny Anderson, Kuehn, MariCar, Morningside and Oyate Community Centers. From May 20 through July 26, season swim passes will be available for purchase from noon -6 p.m., Monday through Friday, at Kenny Anderson, MariCar and Morningside Community Centers. On the weekends of May 25-26 and June 1-2 and 8-9, season swim passes will be available for purchase from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Kuehn, Morningside and Oyate Community Centers. Season swim passes will also be available for purchase at the Park Office, 100 E. Sixth Street, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, with the exception of May 27 and July 4. The cost for a season swim pass is $70 for a family, $45 for an adult (ages 16-54), $30 for a senior (ages 55 and older) and $15 for a child (ages 2-15). Free and reduced-income passes are available for qualified families. Punch passes are also available for $30, which is $6 off of the daily admission price. For more information on the new season swim pass, visit www.siouxfalls.org/parks or call 605-367-8222. Key fobs aren’t needed to access wading pools or spray parks within the city.

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Sioux Falls Parks and Recreation will be introducing a new way for pool and aquatic center users to check in this season, which officials say will help better track use and improve security.

For a number of years, pool patrons had either wristbands that could be taken off or patches sewn on their swimming suit, which they used to gain entry to the pool. However this year, electronic key passes or “fobs” will be used.

“We’ve been hearing for years that people were kind of tired of our outdated system, with patches you have to sew on, and wristbands you have to wear,” said Alicia Luther, recreation manager. “To be quite honest, we wanted to move into the future and be able to track our visitors and eliminate some fraudulent activity, such as people swapping out passes, or people obtaining more than they should have. This is going to be a great system that will lead us in a new direction.”

With the electronic key passes, a variety of different information will be tracked, including the ages of people using the pools, what pools are being used and what areas in the city pool patrons are coming from, Luther said.

“It will help us gauge and guide where do we need new pools, what areas are obviously underserved, and kind of know who are our users — what age groups are using our pools at what times of the day, and that kind of information,” Luther said. “Everything will also be in real time, so it’s going to be a great way for us to be able to communicate between the pools, if we were to have an ejection, or if we were to have a situation where we need to communicate.”

Luther said with the new electronic key fobs, security also will be improved, as everyone who has one will have to have a photo taken, which pops up on a screen when they check in to a pool.

A similar system has been used in Aberdeen for several years, for its aquatic facility. One photo I.D. card is used to gain access to the pool, the golf course and the teen center, said Travis Lemer, aquatics/recreation supervisor for Aberdeen Parks, Recreation and Forestry.

“We implemented that when we opened our aquatics center in 2007,” he said. “We like it, we like it a lot. They come in and they swipe their card, and their photo pulls up on the screen, and security-wise it works well. Once you get through that first year or two where everyone that needs one needs to have their photo taken, that just takes a little time, but once you get through all that, most people when they renew their pass every spring, they can call us, or stop in. We’re not reprinting passes a lot.”

The city has purchased 30,000 key fobs, at a cost of about $7,315. That’s a jump in cost from the average cost per year for patches and wristbands, at $2,785 and $2,656 respectively, but Luther said the cost of the key fobs is more of a one-time purchase, as once someone has one, it can be renewed year after year online.